Round the World challenge for Chestnut Tree House!

28 year old Alison Chabernaud from the Loire Valley in France is taking on the challenge of a lifetime to take part in two of the legs of the Clipper 09-10 Round the World Race for Chestnut Tree House.

Alison moved to England 11 years ago and is currently located in Arundel near to Chestnut Tree House. She learnt of the children's hospice from friends and decided it would be the perfect charity to raise money for whilst acheiveing her dream of sailing around the world.

The challege starts in September and Alison will be joining the team from April in San Francisco visiting the Caribbean, New York, Rotterdam and The Panama Canal on their way to the finish back in the UK at the end of July. She is hoping to raise £14,000 for the children's hospices and will be hosting many local fundraising activities to help her acheive her target.

Alison has never sailed before but, after seeing the advert for the looking for team members in the Times Newspaper, felt it would be a wonderful challenge that would take her out of her comfort zone and change her life.

Her training started back in February which she found very hard to start with but after a few days began to feel the freedom and is now itching to get going! As well as training on the water, Alison has been taking part in fitness, navigation, sea survival, first aid and nutritional training to ensure she is fully equipped to deal with life at sea. One part she hasn't been so keen on is the 4 hours sleep, 4 hours awake system the skipper of her boat has the team working on whilst on the boat!

Please keep checking back to see the events Alison will be hosting to help her fundraise and if you would like to sponsor her, her fundraising account details are as follows;
Account Name: A. Chabernaud - alisongoesknots
Account Number: 28972160
Sort Code: 30-25-80

If you would like to make a donation towards Chestnut Tree House please log on to Alison's JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/alisonchabernaud

Alison has created her own website for the event, log on to www.alisongoesknots.com to find out more. She also has her own group on Facebook 'Alison goes Knots!' which you are all invited to join and see her progress.